Various plier type crimping devices have been devised for crimping Type F connectors to coax cable. As used herein, the term-"F connector" is used to describe Type "F" connector plugs as recognized by the National Electric Code and used as an industry standard coax cable terminator for connecting coax cable to various video and electronics equipment such as VCR's and TV's as well as signal distribution devices such as splitters, transformers, switches and amplifiers.
There are three steps (assembly operations) involved in the assembly of F connectors to coax cable: 1) preparing the end of the cable for assembly, 2) fitting the connector onto the prepared end of the cable, and 3) crimping the F connector permanently to the cable.
F connector crimping devices in the past have been specifically designed to crush the tubular portion of an F connector (hereinafter referred to as the "ferrule") over the outer jacket of the subject cable thus providing a permanently crimped interference fit assembly. Depending on the manufacturer of the F connector, the ferrule may be incorporated as the body of the connector or as a separate tubular ring, although providing the same purpose and required method of crimp.
These crimping devices generally involve hand held plier type tools that include specifically designed tool-jaws that close around the ferrule to form the ferrule properly around the coax cable. The tool-jaws may have round or hexagon crimping stations of different sizes to accept the ferrules of different size F connectors for various coax cable. Furthermore, the tool-jaws may be incorporated into the plier type tool as separate replaceable dies or can be manufactured as part of the plier body. Furthermore, these plier type crimping devices may be designed to pivot the tool-jaws about a single pin or can include multiple pivoting pins to provide a compounding action to increase the tool-jaw's closure force by moment action. Some crimping tools may also include coax cable outer jacket and inner shield and core stripping stations to prepare the end of the cable before assembly to the F connector.
Although the F connector crimp tools stated above are designed to effectively provide a means for the Ferrule crimping operation (step No. 3) and can include a means for assisting a user in the preparation operation (step No. 1) of the end of the cable for termination, these devices are deficient in assisting a user in the well known problems encountered in the initial assembly operation (step No. 2) of fitting the F connector onto the coax cable prior to crimping:
After the end of the coax cable is prepared for assembly to the F connector by removing a portion of outer jacket and inner shield and core, the F connector's barb must then be forcefully inserted under the coax cable's outer jacket by hand, a strenuous task, before the F connector can be crimped to the cable. This method of assembly is extremely difficult in most cases because the force required is substantial, and causes the cable to slip between the fingers.
Technicians in the growing communications industry who are required to perform several assembly operations per day routinely develop painful blisters on their fingers from both the gripping of the cable and also the gripping of the F connector. Gloves have been an impractical remedy to the solution because of the fine detail in the art of the three assembly operations as well as other considerations involved in a technicians duties. Furthermore, gloves do not reduce the amount of force required for the initial assembly operation, thereby still allowing the cable to slip between the fingers. Thus, even with gloves, assembly operation No. 2 remains a strenuous task.
Screw-on type F connectors that do not require the crimping of a ferrule have been developed in an attempt to eliminate the crimping operation and provide an alternate method of assembly. However, these screw-on type of F connectors are undesirable because they also require substantial gripping force resulting in blisters. In many cases they are impossible to assemble due to the variance in the outside diameters of the different types of coax cable. As a result, they have limited use.